“I know what you have to do around here to play well and also the changes (including a new drivable par-4 12th hole) they have made the course are really good”.

“There was not many people around when I played the hole but I am guessing that is going to change come Thursday and Friday, and even more so over the weekend”. At the end of the day, I think that’s the most important thing.

Two-time major victor Jordan Spieth (75) was the highest-profile player to go home early at four over.

It was an odd day during which none of the game’s biggest stars asserted himself.

World No.1 Dustin Johnson sits at even-par after a third-round 73.

Rory McIlroy talked Tuesday about racing back to his rental home in Augusta and crying when he watched the conclusion of Garcia’s victory on television.

Adam Scott pulls a crowd in Florida.

“I’m still the same person”, he said. “I feel like I’m still swinging the club well”.

Garcia is the second to achieve the feat in as many years following Willy Wilcox’s previous ace on the par-three.

After starting on the back nine, Day had birdied the 11th, 13th and 16th to reach the turn in 33, before holing from 65ft across the first green.

“I’ve been saying it, I’m still the same person”, Garcia said. McIlroy wrapped him in a giant bear hug on April 21 when Garcia arrived for McIlroy’s wedding, and he wasn’t his only fellow pro to do so. Unfortunately I had a couple mistakes. “And I’ll always try to be true to myself”.

Masters champion Sergio Garcia was having a semi-rough go Thursday during Round 1 of the Players Championship, his first competitive round since he captured his first major at Augusta. Of the previous seven players to ace the hole, only three finished in the top 40 that week.

“I was nervous. And I was only kicking the ball 15 yards”, Garcia said of his magic moment.

Garcia, 37, said he knew he hit “a good shot”, but it could have gone “three yards past” the hole, or done “anything”. “I turned a poor round into a decent round”.

Wearing the green jacket in a sit-down interview with former tour pro Frank Nobilo, Garcia’s enthusiasm was apparent.

South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen and Francesco Molinari of Italy head a list of 11 players who shot 69 and are two strokes off the lead.

Garcia has at times had a prickly relationship with some of his peers, perhaps the best example being Padraig Harrington, who in the aftermath of Garcia’s victory described him as being “a very sore loser”.

Bernhard Langer continues to marvel. He became the “Best player to have not won a major” for a long time. It wasn’t just any hole-in-one either.

Kyle Stanley birdied his first four holes and five of his first six and looked like he was going to post a magical number.